March 11th of this year “Gord Montgomery” of “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity to visit commercial heat treater “Vacuum S.P.A.” in Verdello, Italy-the visit resulted in an article entitled; “Vacuum Heat Treater Finds Business to Be Strong”.

Just after this visit the company issued this press release about a new investment for the company, an additional plasma nitriding system which entered service just 2 months ago;

“We have recently installed a new plasma nitriding system, featuring similar characteristics to our previous systems but improved with enhanced technical features, such as new pump flow control valves that ensure even more precise and reliable process management.

This system was purchased to meet specific production requirements, particularly in the automotive sector, ensuring optimal performance for technically complex components.

Additionally, the system has been certified to operate in the aerospace sector, meeting the stringent Nadcap standards — further proof of our commitment to delivering top-level quality and safety. With this investment, Vacuum strengthens its ability to provide reliable, tailored solutions for the most specialized applications.”

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Commercial heat treater “American Steel Treating” of Perrysburg, Ohio, USA has been included on our list of the “50 Largest North American Commercial Heat Treaters” a number of times over the years. Very unfortunately the privately owned firm will join a long list of North American commercial heat treaters closing in 2025, in the case of “American Steel Treating” the date is April 1, 2025. 
 
“Founded in 1989 by three Surface Combustion employees including the current owner and CEO, Mr. Roy Waits, American Steel Treating is located in Perrysburg, Ohio. While the company offers most types of heat treating covering a variety of industries, we tend to think of them for high volume automotive work processed through a number of pusher furnaces. The company operates out of a 300,000 square foot facility close to Toledo, Ohio.“
 
The company has a “gold plated” customer list which includes General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, Chrysler and American Axle which is perhaps why it is closing down-turmoil and uncertainty in the auto industry. 
 
“The Monty” has been working closely with the organization to sell their furnaces, if you would like a list of what is available, please let us know; Gord Montgomery [email protected]. We have been asked to say that “all offers will be considered”. 
 

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Founded in 2015 by 3 individuals with a lifetime of experience in the heat treat industry, furnace builder “MEAPFORNI” of Fontanafredda, Italy has thrived over the years. The firm delivered it’s first furnace in 2017 and can now boast that it has installed over 100 furnaces in the past 8 years with sales in 2024 of just over 10 million euros ($10.8 million USD). 
 
The 23 employees can also brag about the fact that they have provided furnaces to commercial heat treaters such as “Bodycote” and “HÄRTHA Group” as well as captive heat treaters such as chain saw manufacturer “Stihl” of Sweden in countries as diverse as China, Italy, France and Mexico to name just a few.
 
Their product line is varied and covers most processes from batch carburizing lines and austemper furnaces to roller hearth furnaces, nitriding systems and even vacuum including vacuum carburizing (we should mention that the company has a partnership agreement with Japanese furnace builder Dowa).
 
The attached photos show one of the furnaces under construction during our visit, a low pressure nitriding furnace which is a fairly standard offering for the company. 
 
We need to also mention that during our visit “Meapforni” showed us a very recent example of one of their installations, a sealed quench (batch IQ) line at a local gear manufacturer-the entire story with pictures can be found at “Heavy Equipment Component Supplier Invests in New Heat Treat Department”.
We thank the entire team at “Meapforni” for their hospitality during our March 13 visit, their kind consideration was much appreciated. 

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Gord Montgomery, “The Monty Heat Treat News”, Sonia Pellizzon, CFO, “Meapforni”, Francesco Pieropan “Meapforni”
The “Meapforni” Team (we want to point out Mr. Vlad Kulbitski, Sales Manager, third from right)
Recently the commercial heat treating division of “Nitrex” had a press release about installing what is quite possibly the ” Largest Nitriding Furnace in North America”, a picture of which can be found here;
 
With working dimensions of 4.5 meters (13.5′) in diameter X 3.5 meters (10.5′) in depth and capable of handling loads of up to 80,000 pounds it is certainly the largest nitriding furnace that we are aware of in North America but it pales in comparison with two units located in Northern Italy.
 
Gruppo T.T.N., (the largest commercial heat treater in Italy) has two pit gas nitriders with the larger having working dimensions of approximately 5 meters (15′ diameter) X 14 meters (42′ deep). The furnaces are so large that when the USA space agency NASA was searching for a heat-treating source in the late 1990’s for their rocket fuel tanks, the only source they were able to find were these furnaces.
 
On a side note, what Nitrex has accomplished with this furnace is very impressive and in the opinion of “The Monty Heat Treat News” it fills a real void in the North American commercial heat-treating industry. When US commercial heat treater “Metlab” closed in 2024 it took a great deal of large component heat treating capacity with it-a situation summarized by “The Monty”, “Metlab HT Closing Giving Gear Suppliers “Headaches”
 
These photos show the installation at “Gruppo T.T.N.”
 
“2019 POSTING: ABOUT Gruppo T.T.N./Italy. Last week we had the chance to visit commercial heat treater Gruppo T.T.N., at their headquarters in Nerviano, Italy which proved to be a rather interesting experience. The family-owned group consists of 9 locations, all in northern Italy with a total of 500 employees-now 9 plants and 500 employees would rank the company as one of the largest commercial heat treaters in Europe and even the world for that matter.  As far as we can tell there are no processes the company does not have-Induction, Vacuum, Salt, Gas & Plasma Nitriding, annealing, Quench & Temper, Vacuum Carburizing-there is literally not a process we can think of that the company does not have. The only common denominator would appear to be that the company focuses mainly on large parts, however since they also have belt furnaces even this statement is not entirely true. In the lobby there is a rather interesting photo and certificate dating back about 15 years. The certificate of achievement is from Boeing and emphasizes the company’s contributions to the Nasa Space missions when they heat treated components for fuel tanks for rockets, a contribution which required a Boeing team to be on site for 6 months. Mr. Pirovano who founded the company back in 1978 and who is still very active turned out to be a very friendly and open fellow who allowed us to take photos of the entire plant. “

“Assembled Furnace Loads”

Our previous news item for today, Monday, March 24 referenced a company by the name of “T.T.N.” the largest commercial heat treater in Italy, this news item summarizes the second largest commercial heat treater in the country, “PROTERM  Trattamenti Termici” .
 
Founded in 1973 the company over the years has grown to a total of 8 plants in Italy, with 330 employees and annual revenues of approximately 40 million euros (43 million USD$). Originally a family-owned business the firm was acquired by a private equity group just a few years ago, although one of the family members., Mr. Valerio Accorsi, remains as the President of the company.
 
Our March 12 visit was to the Proterm Castello D’Argile facility which features two roller hearth furnaces provided by furnace builder “CIEFFE” a few years back. Each furnace is capable of annealing, iso thermal annealing, normalizing and hardening with oil quenching,, a basket load of 1,000Kg gross (2,200 pounds) is produced every 9 minutes.
 
The vast bulk of the product consists of forgings for “heavy industry” and in addition to the heat treating shotblasting is also a core part of the firm’s business. The furnaces operate 24 hours/day, 7 days a week.
 
Our hosts for this tour were Mr. Valerio Accorsi and Mr. Claudio Spinelli of Proterm and Mr. Angelo Scipione, Head of Sales & PM for “CIEFFE” (more about “CIEFFE) at a later date.
 
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“Claudio Spinelli, Proterm, Angelo Scipione, CIEFFE, Valerio Accorsi, Proterm, Gord Montgomery “The Monty Heat Treat News”
“Mr. Valerio Accorsi, Proterm” 
Next week “The Monty Heat Treat News” will have a number of very interesting news items from around the world including a mention about another USA commercial heat treat closing, a story about one of the largest commercial heat treaters in Italy and an in depth report about a visit “Gord Montgomery” of “The Monty Heat Treat News” made to one of the two largest furnace builders in the world “Aichelin Industrial Furnace Solutions”. This photo shows part of the “Aichelin” team in front of a brand new cast link belt line almost ready to ship to a very large fastener manufacturer.
 
More to come on these stories.

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“15 Largest Captive Heat Treats-North America. Each year we are proud to present an industry exclusive, a list of the “15 Largest Captive Heat Treats-North America” as compiled by “The Monty Heat Treat News“. 
We look back a year to our list in 2024; 
 
In 2022 “The Monty Heat Treat News” published a heat treatment industry exclusive, a list of the “10 Largest Single Location Captive Heat Treats” in North America. Since that time changes have occurred and in 2023 we published our list of the “11 Largest Single Location Captive Heat Treats in North America” We are now pleased to offer our 2024 list which has expanded to the “15 Largest Single Location Captive Heat Treats in North America”.
 
  • Our criteria is simple in that this list only includes single locations and not total heat treating capacity in North America. As an example the ZF Transmission facility in South Carolina makes this list but overall this plant is only a small percentage of the heat treating capacity ZF has in North America.
  • Our estimates are based upon a combination of number of furnaces and throughput. For instance vacuum carburizing cells have a much small throughput than a large pusher furnace-we have tried to take this into account.
  • It is interesting that out of this list of 15, eleven are in the USA, three in Mexico and one in Canada
  • While we do not for a second claim this list is 100% accurate we do claim that it is the most complete list which we have ever come across.
  • As always we appreciate the input we received from each company on this list and we look forward to your thoughts and comments.”
https://themonty.com/articles/15-largest-captive-heat-treats-north-america/-2024
For sheer variety, complexity, “high end” heat treat technology and tight tolerances you would struggle to beat the heat treating that goes into gears-any form of gears for that matter.
 
A prime example of this would be “SIAP SPA”, a member of the “Carraro Group” based in Italy-our focus today is on the “SIAP” facility in Maniago, Italy which supplies a variety of gears, primarily for the automotive industry but also veering off into a number of other industries.
 
This 450 employee plant has always considered heat treating to be a core part of its’ business and it shows in their heat treat investments.
 

“Ipsen Atlas XL Line”, Michele Filippi Chiella, SIAD and Corrado Tomaselli, Ipsen

The original investment included two large, highly automated Ipsen pusher lines which even after a number of years in service are still operating 24/7 with tremendous results.

 
The next phase of the company’s heat treating experience included 5 sealed quench (Batch IQ) furnaces again from “Ipsen International”, each with working dimensions of 760mm X 1,200mm X 760mm (30″ X 48″ X 30″). 
 
Next step? Two completely automated Ipsen “Atlas XL” sealed quench furnace lines with associated tempers, charge car and washer, with the most recent sealed quench being installed in 2024. Each of the new furnaces has working dimensions of 910mm X 1220mm X 910mm-it is worth mentioning that all of the pushers and sealed quench furnaces are serviced by 6 endothermic generators.
 

Typical Furnace Load

Control of each of the furnaces is via a probe plus “Siemens” IR system.
 

“Press Quenching”

In addition to these atmosphere furnaces the company also has a low pressure nitriding furnace and  “Gleason” press quenching lines.

 
This visit happened Friday, March 14th and we can’t say enough good things about our hosts. Mr. Michele Filippi Chiella of SIAP is a long time veteran of the heat treat industry and is polite, open, knowledgeable and very open.
 
Mr. Corrado Tomaselli, is a second generation sales person for Ipsen in Italy and is enthusiastic, energetic and experienced-he does a very good job of presenting the Ipsen face to the industry.
Michele Filippi Chiella, Maintenance & General Service Manager “SIAP”, Corrado Tomaselli, Sales “Ipsen International” 
“Gord Montgomery” of “The Monty Heat Treat News” had the opportunity just yesterday, March 18th, 2025 to see a really impressive captive/commercial heat treating facility in Dravogradu, Slovenia.
 
Let’s start at the beginning of our story;
 
Family owned “Miheu d.o.o.” located in the town of Dravogradu, Slovenia was founded in 1974 as small, humble commercial heat treater featuring “pit carburizing” furnaces. A big step in the evolution of the company occurred in 2008 when the firm acquired an automated carburizing line from Switzerland based “Codere”, a line which is still in service-since that time the company has added many more furnaces and has never looked back.
 

Overview of the “Miheu” Facility Featuring “SECO/WARWICK” Vacuum Hardening Furnaces

Over the years the firm has expanded from commercial heat treating only into one which offers heat treating and also manufacturers high precision shredder blades and distance rings used in industrial shredders for recycling of various materials-hence the fact that Miheu is both a captive and commercial heat treater.
 
As of this printing the company’s revenue is 50% commercial heat treating and 50% new machined products which translates into roughly 8 million Euro in total sales for 2025-mumber of employees is now 45.
 
As our focus is on the heat-treating side of the business, we will mention that over the past 10 years Miheu has invested over 10 million euros (roughly the same in USD) in the heat treat department and it shows, meaning it is a very clean, modern heat treat facility.
 
Heat treating is housed in its own brand new (since 2022), 2,000 square meter facility located just a few kilometers from the main office. Current business conditions mean that it is processing over 4,000 tons of steel per year.
 
Except for Induction hardening and salt quenching there are virtually no heat treating processes which the company does not offer, LPC (Low Pressure Carburizing), Carburizing, Gas Nitriding, Plasma Nitriding, Nitrocarburizing-the company offers every single one of these heat treat processes.
 

“KGO” Model “SON 12-20E” Pit Gas Nitrider Built 2020

Our visit was hosted by “Mr. Ales Prikerznik”, Director of the company and joining us was “Mr. Harald Roth” of German furnace builder “KGO” . KGO provided a pit nitriding furnace to the company which entered production in 2021-Harald, Ales and the furnace can be seen in two of the pictures below.
 
“Miheu d.o.o.” has featured prominently in several press releases issued by furnace builder “SECO/WARWICK” over the years and we can see why, “Miheu” has a number of quite new furnaces from the company including a “LPC” (low pressure carburizing) system which entered production in 2022-this is in addition to several “SECO” vacuum hardening systems which can be seen in at least two of these photos.
 
We thank “Mr. Ales Prikerznik” of “Miheu”, besides the fact that he is a very knowledgeable heat treater he is also a tremendous host. “Gord Montgomery”, “The Monty Heat Treat News”
“Gord Montgomery” and the “Miheu” Heat Treat Team
“Harald Roth” KGO, “Ales Prikerznik” Director, “Miheu d.o.o.”
 

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From time to time “The Monty Heat Treat News” plays the “What’s It Worth” game where we give our readers an honest and unbiased idea about what used heat treat furnaces are selling for these days.

It is a very tired cliche to say that we live in troubled times and that the future is uncertain-we doubt that there has ever been a generation in history that did not say this.  However we can say that we are seeing some very odd things happening in used furnace pricing these days.

Items which have long been in high demand are a glut on the market and others that were once very popular now languish on the market. However there are a number of items which still remain in high demand and one of the best examples are good condition name brand vacuum furnaces-let us give you an example.

Last year a VFS (Vacuum Furnace Systems) Model HL 66 X 72 EQ2 Vacuum Furnace entered the used market in North America-the complete description said this;

“This is a horizontal loading vacuum furnace manufactured by VFS  6/1997. Well maintained furnace with original hot zone. The furnace water system was on a closed loop system with rust preventative and heat exchanger / water tower open loop side.”

Asking price for the furnace was $200,000 USD and sale price was $200,000 USD. While the furnace did not sell overnight it sold within just a few months and in our opinion the sale price was fair for both buyer and seller based on brand, condition, age and capabilities.
 
Stay tune for more “What’s it Worth” episodes.
 
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